Hroth

I thought that was the mirror (which eventually crack'd from side to side) which the Lady of Shallots was forced to view the outside world through, until Sir Lancalot came trotting by, making a disgraceful racket! (edit) It is, but Waterhouse has neglected to paint himself in the reflection, he should be obscuring the left hand arches of the bridge... I like the Yankee Railmotor - is the brass thingie a small cannon to clear trainrobbers from the track?

It may be as you say, but its difficult to interpret wind direction when the illustration has been created by someone with no sailing knowledge, probably working from a snapshot, simplifying as he goes. If the wind is more to his starboard side, then the red sail might be close to gybing itself and he's bearing off to port a tad to avoid the other silly ###### ok, blighter. If the wind is close to his stern, then the other boat is in irons and has the wind on the wrong side of her sail. It may be that the artist has merely neglected to draw the mast in...... Phew! Anyhow, never trust a yottie with a white peaked cap! AND a pipe in his free hand... Drat! Hashed again!!!

Not just that, but he's got the wind on his starboard quarter and if he's pushing his tiller over like that, he's going to gybe sooner or later. I know a wherry doesn't have a boom, but its got a whacking great block at the end of the sail and if that comes flying across its going to catch him one whilst he's gurning at whoevers behind him! (Probably a female Hullabaloo posing on a cabin top....)

Thats a bit of a slur, "The Scottish Fishwife. Travel cheaply by LNER"! As for the Pagoda shelter, it was a bit rusty when I last saw it, nearly 5 decades ago...... You know, it comes as a terrible shock when you work out how long ago it was when some things were experienced.

Sure you've not misidentified them? Apropos of nothing in particular, other than it refers to carp, every time I see a magazine for coarse fishermen called "Totally Carp" (Whilst perusing the most recent MRJ, GWJ and so forth), my brain insists on transposing the middle two letters. Well, they ARE coarse anglers...... BTW You're doing well with that Typhoon. I just hope you're being careful with that tablecloth!

I keep all my fish in the deep freeze...... Much safer that way!

When we went to Barmouth, there was an icy wind blowing in off the sea in, yes, August. We were camping on Shell Island, a bit up the coast and several tents had been blown down in a gale the previous night..... (The current weather forecast for Barmouth is "sunny, max 18deg C, though varying degrees of downpour are forecast from Wednesday onward, typical!) You have to admire the optimism of British seaside poster artists! Getting back to railways, when we were at Shell Island, the Halt at Llanbedr still had a GWR pagoda roof hut, I just looked on Google Earth and its been replaced by a bus shelter construction.

But some have a jolly good try! http://withernsea1.co.uk/OldPictures/TrainCrash1927.jpg

Pre-raff http://www.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/T/T02/T02075_10.jpg Dearest! We promised to meet Martine off the 4.50 from Paddington!

More goosebumps! Definitely a subject for a "Please Explain" rocket!!!

Looks like she wanted to go to Birmingham, but they took her on to Crewe. Typical LNWR, if you ask me! Her best bet to avoid his intentions would be to take the GWR route via Nantwich and Market Drayton to Wellington, there to get a connection to Wolverhampton and then Birmingham! Definitely safer!

Yes - not enough "goosebumps" for a start.....

"Topless" ladies have never been a thing to ruffle Gallic sensibilities, especially in an arty context. You do notice she's decently swaddled below the waist, no visible ankles, for example, whilst our Hero (Neptune, I suppose) is completely naked and only has his blushes spared by a convenient frond of seaweed. Personally, if I were he, I'd be rather worried by the rather large lobster progressing up my right calf! As for the young ladies in grey, dressing identically is still a common game......

Poor dear, such a long wait for the Gare du Nord - St Pancras Eurostar service! Good thing she wrapped up warm!

It actually sounds Quite Interesting. I'll have to wait for it to filter down to my local Purveyor! Two typos on the front cover and a missing illustration. Will it become a Rare and Sought After issue on those grounds alone? Oh well, off for some coffee to kick start the brain.

Just don't start pinning track down on top of it.... (our dining room table still has some star wheel tracks from when my mother had been marking a sewing pattern out.)

What terrific card and paper buildings! The one thing that concerns me with the station building is that the brick pillars are probably too small a diameter to be built with stock bricks in the real world. I see those pillars as being precast fluted concrete, either left "raw" or painted a buff colour similar to the window cills. It could also do with some lintels.... Being positive, I do like the drum rotunda design, it was used on so many modern suburban stations in the 1930s, here's one that the LMS constructed in the early-mid 30s when they electrified the Wirral Railway: http://www.hoylakejunction.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/hoylake-station-retro.jpg Note the smooth concrete pillars! Pre-raff https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a2/cb/cf/a2cbcffbec21459f16c3fef52b416b23.jpg "It won't take so long if I take a shortcut through the tunnel....."

Before. I think the chap in the black hat is an undercover restaurant critic.....

Yep, you always get the tinny backwash of someone elses "music".......

A nice review, confirming my impressions of the model. Its a pity that the cab profile is off, and that the lining is too wide. If the black area of the lining were a bit thinner (esp on the cab sides) there would be little to really complain about at normal viewing distances. The black underside to the boiler isn't a problem as far as I'm concerned, it just appears to be dark shadow!

I went for the Manning Wardle in the steam poll, but I think a tiny "Contractors Locomotive" would be even better. I wasn't going to choose an I.C. loco, but the poll insisted I did so, so I googled them all and chose the "Yardmaster" as it looked the oddest!

WahhhWahhhWahhhhhhhh...... (In lieu of the missing Grone button) The main thing is not to ride a ladies bicycle if a Gentleman, or even to use any sort of bicycle to excess.

The roller pickup was the Rovex Princess for Marks and Sparks. Abandoned because it picked up dirt very easily, modified to plungers for the first general production locos with plastic wheels. Abandoned because they used to lift the wheels off the track! Then Triang introduced metal chassis and wheels (about 1955?) and did away with the plungers altogether.

As I understand the Triang motor chronology, its: X01 - Disk commutator (early plastic Princesses) X03 - Like an X04 but without felt oil pads (early Princesses with metal chassis and wheels) X03,5 - As the X03 but with an oil pad on the front bearing (I suppose by this point, Jintys had 'em too) X04 - Oil pads fore and aft. The mainstream Triang motor. Dunno what happened to X02!

The August issue of Hornby Magazine has a sympathetic review of the Dean Goods, liking it even though they acknowledge its many faults.....